“Blood work was supposed to be the last step in Isela’s application for life insurance. But when she arrived at the lab, her appointment had been cancelled.

“That was my first warning,” Isela said. She contacted her insurance agent and was told her application was denied because something on her medication list indicated that Isela uses drugs. Isela, who works in an addiction treatment program at Boston Medical Center (BMC), scanned her med list. It showed a prescription for the opioid-reversal drug naloxone, brand name Narcan.

That’s a message public health leaders aim to spread far and wide. “BE PREPARED. GET NALOXONE. SAVE A LIFE,” summarized an advisory from the U.S. surgeon general in April.

But life insurers consider the use of prescription drugs when reviewing policy applicants. And it can be difficult to tell the difference between someone who carries naloxone to save others and someone who carries naloxone because they are at risk for an overdose.”

“The United States is in the midst of an opioid crisis. Every day, over 100 people die from opioid overdoses, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But what if we could know about overdoses before they happen?

Scientists in California have opened the possibility of having such preemptive knowledge by creating a model that uses Google searches to predict overdoses from heroin. Their research, published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence in September and reported on this week in Scientific American, shows that Google searches for certain drugs, including slang terms, can be used to explain heroin-related visits to hospitals.”

“Deaths from drug overdose in the United States increased by 54% from 2011 to 2016 — with opioids, benzodiazepines (benzos), and stimulants the most commonly used drug classes involved, a new report released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), shows.

The report notes that there were 41,340 drug overdose deaths in 2011 vs 63,632 such deaths in 2016.

Although the opioid oxycodone was the most cited drug in overdose death records in 2011, heroin took the top spot from 2012 to 2015.

The story around fentanyl may be even more troubling. The rate of overdose deaths involving it or one of its analogs doubled each year from 2013 through 2016, when it finally took the lead in becoming the most mentioned drug. In 2016, 29% of all overdose deaths involved fentanyl (n = 18,335).”

“A drug company is offering a significantly cheaper version of its life-saving opioid overdose treatment after a Senate investigation found that it spiked the price of its drug.

A report from the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations last month found that the company, Kaléo, hiked the price of its drug Evzio to $4,100 for two injectors, raising the price by more than 600 percent between 2014 and 2017.

After this scrutiny, the company on Wednesday announced that it will offer a cheaper generic version of the drug for $178 for two injections.”

“An authorized generic for kaléo’s naloxone HCl injection (Evzio®) will be available midyear in 2019, and will come with a list price of $178 per carton, each containing 2 auto-injectors. Offered through kaléo subsidiary IJ Therapeutics, the new authorized generic is the same formulation and design as the branded drug, but will have a different label.

Although Evzio is currently available for $0 out-of-pocket to eligible patients with commercial insurance, the lower list price of the authorized generic will offer a more affordable and cost-effective solution for Medicare Part D patients and plans.”

“Providers aren’t using telemedicine enough for substance use disorder treatment, and researchers say the resource is a “missed opportunity” when drug overdose deaths continue to climb and access to care remains limited.

Telemedicine visits for substance use disorder jumped from 97 in 2010 to nearly 2,000 by 2017, according to an analysis published Monday in Health Affairs. But substance use disorder represented only 1% of all telemedicine visits in 2017, and they made up 0.1% of all substance use disorder treatment visits.

Telemedicine growth in substance use treatment has been stymied by federal regulations that require prescribers of medication-assisted treatments like buprenorphine to see patients in-person first. That requirement can make it difficult for patients in areas with few or no clinicians certified to prescribe MAT to receive treatment. There is an exception that allows local clinicians to prescribe buprenorphine if they’re supervised by another provider via telemedicine.”

“The United States has more than double the rate of premature overdose deaths of at least 12 other countries, according to a new study.

The research, published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine, says that there were an estimated 63,632 drug overdose deaths in 2016 in the US.

“The U.S. has the highest death rate due to drug overdoses for both men and women (35 deaths in 100,000 men and 20 deaths in 100,000 women) in 2015, more than double those of any other country in our study,” Yingxi Chen, one of the researchers and a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute, wrote in an email.

Mexico had the lowest rates: 1 death per 100,000 men and 0.2 deaths per 100,000 women.”

“DEA Acting Administrator Uttam Dhillon today announced results of the 2018 National Drug Threat Assessment, which outlines the threats posed to the United States by domestic and international drug trafficking and the abuse of illicit drugs.

Among the key 2018 NDTA findings:

Controlled prescription drugs remain responsible for the largest number of overdose deaths of any illicit drug class since 2001. These drugs are the second most commonly abused substance. Traffickers are now disguising other opioids as controlled prescription drugs to gain access to this market. (pages 1-10)

Heroin-related drug-poisoning deaths almost doubled between 2013 and 2016. This has been exacerbated by the increased adulteration of heroin with fentanyl and other synthetic opioids. Heroin available in U.S. markets is primarily sourced from Mexico, where opium poppy cultivation and heroin production have both increased significantly in recent years. (pages 11-20)

Of all opioids, the abuse of illicit fentanyl and other synthetic opioids has led to the greatest number of deaths in the United States. Fentanyl is increasingly available in the form of counterfeit prescription pills marketed for illicit street sales, and also sold by traffickers on its own, without the presence of other drugs. (pages 21-37)

“The Food and Drug Administration is considering requiring doctors to prescribe an overdose reversal drug with prescription painkillers such as OxyCodone, Commissioner Scott Gottlieb announced Tuesday.

The overdose antidote, known as naloxone, can save the lives of people who’ve suffered overdoses. The FDA may require the drug to be prescribed every time a patient receives an opioid to treat pain, or only if they receive a particularly high dose.

The move has been pushed by the makers of Narcan, a nasal spray version of the drug that people can use at home. The drug also comes in the form of an auto-injector known as Evzio, another form that people can use on someone who has overdosed even if they’re not in the medical field.”

“The U.S. is “beginning to turn the tide” on the opioid epidemic, HHS Secretary Alex Azar said Tuesday, pointing to new federal data showing a slight dip in overdose deaths last year.

Preliminary CDC data released last week shows drug overdose deaths, which spiked in 2017, dropped 2.8 percent toward the end of last year and the beginning of 2018.

“The seemingly relentless trend of rising overdose deaths seems to be finally bending in the right direction,” Azar said in prepared remarks at the Milken Institute’s health care conference in Washington, D.C.

CDC Director Robert Redfield cautioned that his agency’s numbers are preliminary but said they are encouraging.”